Play on Norway killer draws ire
Playwright brings ideas behind Anders Breivik’s ‘manifesto’ to stage
An avant-garde Danish director and playwright has triggered ire and condemnation in some parts of Europe with his decision to mount a theatrical production about the manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who killed 77 people in Utoya and Oslo last summer.
The production of Manifest 2083, by Copenhagen’s Café Teatret, will open in Copenhagen in about seven months, and is an attempt to investigate “the political mindset of this man,” explains Christian Lollike, the artistic director of the theatre company.
“I was, of course, deeply shocked by the tragedy,” Lollike wrote in an email to the Star. “And it has left a scar inside me, which has compelled me to try to understand what happened.
“At first, everybody thought it was a terror attack by radical Muslim extremists. Then we realized it was a young Norwegian man. The questions manifested immediately: Why did he do it? How could this happen?”
The play, which will be staged as a monologue, will use Breivik’s own words — his manifesto — to examine “how and why an apparently quite normal Norwegian man gives up on democracy and chooses to discard democratic values, isolates himself, and prepares this slaughter.
“The terrible actions committed in Oslo and on Utoya were his alone, but the excruciating set of thoughts and radical views behind these actions are not unique — at all,” Lollike said. “The tragedy can happen again. Breivik is not mentally ill in the sense that a lot of people would wish.”
Lollike, a highly respected playwright and director who has won a
“The questions manifested immediately: Why did he do it? How could this happen?”
CHRISTIAN LOLLIKE
DANISH PLAYWRIGHT
number of prestigious European and Scandinavian awards, is known for his avant-garde plays and social commentary, including Undervaerket — The re-mohammed-ty Show, a play about 9/11.
One of his more recent plays, Cosmic Fear or the Day Brad Pitt got Paranoia, is set to open in Quebec this May at Theatre Niveau Parking.
It is Café Teatret’s role as a theatre company to “observe, react to and describe society,” Lollike said. “We raise a critical voice . . . That is our mission.
The artistic director and playwright isn’t mounting the production for shock value or to make money. He says he sincerely wants the audience to use the play as a piece of social commentary and begin to understand how and why Breivik committed such a terrible act — and develop a deeper understanding of right-wing rhetoric. “I think they will see him, not as mentally ill, but as a political racist. He started out as a member for a nationalist, right-wing party in Norway but gave up politics in the normal sense,” Lollike said. “Our goal is to stage plays which discuss and dissect society and spark hopefully fruitful debates.” Along with the production, Lollike is planning to run a series of seminars with experts and academics to examine issues like Europe’s rising radical right, and if similar attacks can be expected in the future. Lollike says it is vital for society to hear Breivik’s words, which he believes points to a larger problem across Europe. He has emailed the manifesto to more than 10,000 accounts across Europe. “During the last decade, Muslims have been stigmatized as a people who cause problems,” he explained. “This again has contributed to a negative attitude towards immigration and integration of immigrants. Large parts of the political views in Breivik’s manifesto are copy/pasted from elsewhere or at least backed up by referrals to several European political party programs — it is a fact that Breivik wants Muslims out of Europe. His way of reasoning and thinking is not unique; he does not stand alone in that respect, and that is terrifying.” Lollike scoffs at critics’ suggestions that he shouldn’t use Breivik’s manifesto or the killings as a topic for a play: “It is my belief that speaking about the radical right-wing populism is the better solution than keeping silent.”